NR 439 Chamberlain Week 4 Research Design Evaluation Questions and Response

Stephany: The lesson on quantitative versus qualitative, during the weekly lesson, was very thorough. I think back on a course I took in the past and the professor gave us a way to remember quaNtitative v. quaLitative. I highlight the “N” in quantitative to represent numbers. Quantitative tends to gear more towards placing a number on something. The “L” in qualitative, represents the word label. This type of research is more descriptive utilizing words to describe. I wanted to share in hopes that it too, may help someone remember the difference, as it has stuck with me forever. With that said, quantitative has 3 sub- groups: experimental, quasi-experimental and non-experimental. All of these have the goal of indicating a cause and effect. Qualitative research is an individual perception, obtaining research data through interviews, observation, and descriptive words on how one feels (Chamberlain, 2022). Thinking of cause and effect is the other way that helps me remember the difference between the two, as I feel this is the definitive difference and makes sense to me.

Mixed method is one study category design I found interesting. Completing a study that contains both perspective, feelings and observations, combined with hard evidence with numbers and cause and effect, is appealing. In a study completed in 2017, the review indicates mixed method is a research study increasingly used more often with nursing, as it is based on science but supplies the descriptive feelings and observations as well (Bressan et al.). The review concluded there needs to be more thorough guidelines to complete mixed-method research study, so results can be confidently implemented. I truly feel this research study could have a positive impact on nursing. As patient advocates, our patient’s satisfaction and feelings should always be accounted for. Obtaining quantitative data while interviewing perspectives and feelings would benefit the nursing process.